Louisiana executed a man convicted of murder with nitrogen gas on Tuesday evening, capping a raging legal battle that ended with a gas mask strapped over the man's face in the Angola State Penitentiary death chamber.

Louisiana has used nitrogen gas to put a man to death, marking the first time the state has used that execution method.

Before his execution, lawyers for Jessie Hoffman Jr., who was 18 when he was convicted of the 1996 murder of a 28-year-old woman, argued that the nitrogen gas execution infringed on his freedom to practice religion.